Dominika Cibulkova celebrated her 27th birthday with a dominant 6-1, 6-1, win over American qualifier Louisa Chirico.
The experience of Cibulkova proved too much against the young American. The Slovakian is making her sixth appearance in Madrid compared to Chirico, who is making her first. The first set was a one-way show for the former Australian Open finalist as she dominated her inexperienced rival with a series of blistering shots. Sealing the 27-minute set with a sublime drop shot, Cibulkova won 77% of her service points compared to her opponents 44%.
The intensity in Cibulkova’s game didn’t let up as she applied pressure on Chirico at the start of the second set. A sublime cross court winner awarded the world N0.38 another break point. The game was then gifted to match favorite after a Chirico backhand failed to go over the net. The sensational play demonstrated by Chirico throughout the week in Madrid was clearly over. A duo of back-to-back double faults from the American extended Cibulkova’s lead to 4-1. She then completed her dominant performance with a down the line winner.
“I was playing just really well. I was dominating on the court and I was mentally very strong.” Cibulkova said about her win.
“it was just really, really good match from my side.”
In her 59-minute victory, the 27-year-old fired 24 winners compared to just eight unforced errors. In addition, she also won 5/7 break points.
Prior to her maiden meeting with the American youngster, Cibulkova watched videos of her in action as preparation. She assigned her aggressive approach to the match to the reason behind her one-sided win.
“I was playing really aggressive. I did not let her play her game so she couldn’t do much with the forehand. I was really strong, solid on the backhand. I was the first one going for the forehand and making her run.” she said about her tactics.
Despite the crushing defeat, Chirico is projected to rise to 75 in the rankings following her sensational week in Madrid. The American appeared nervous throughout her first WTA Premier semi final. Despite the nerves, Chirico stressed that it wasn’t the reason for her defeat.
“I was a little bit nervous in the beginning,” Chirico said.
“I think it was just the situation, being my first time in the semifinal. That is not an excuse and not the reason I lost, I was expecting those nerves at the same time.”
Chirico is now in a mad rush to see if she has made the deadline to participate in the qualifying tournament for next week’s Rome Open. If she is unsuccessful, Chirico will travel to Slovakia to play a ITF $100,000 tournament in Trnava.
Cibulkova will now play in her 14th WTA final where she will play either Simona Halep or Sam Stosur. Following her semifinal victory, the 27-year-old was presented with a birthday cake by the tournament organizers at the end of her press conference.
Dominika Cibulkova receives a birthday cake from the Madrid Open organisers. pic.twitter.com/7R7Iu2pPkl
— Adam_Addicott (@tennisbanter) 6 May 2016
